This 15th August India again celebrates its Independence day (66th). While the spirit of independence takes over and pledges of democracy are renewed in ceremonies across India, in Kashmir all human spirits shall be barricaded, all communication links terminated, all bolts fastened by columns of jackboots and pledges of occupation over mind, soul and territory made by those in power. While an uneasy morbid silence shall take over Kashmir, when the rolls of concertina wire on roads shall far outnumber the souls braving there, when every window shall be securely fastened against every barrel pointed towards it, Kashmir shall celebrate its helplessness.

When from the ramparts of Red Fort, India shall hold out promises of justice, equality and integrity to its nationals, Kashmir will have continued with apathy, declination and retraction of the same. When new promises towards Kashmir shall be made by the power offices of India from these parapets, Kashmir shall celebrate all earlier promises by India that were consigned to willful forgetfulness; of Nehru’s “The fate of Kashmir will ultimately be decided by the people. We have given that pledge and Maharaja (Hari Singh) has supported it. It is not only a pledge to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not, and cannot back out of it” (2nd Nov 1947 Lal chowk). Kashmir shall celebrate the ridicule of P V Narsima Rao‘s ‘sky is the limit’ and the jeer of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘Insaniyat ke daire mai’. Kashmir shall also celebrate PM Manmohan Singh’s ‘zero tolerance for human rights violations’ and at the same time mourn its practiced paradox here. While from the ramparts of the Fort India shall declare its ‘love not lost for the atoot ang’, in Kashmir we shall be made to celebrate India’s practiced rule of “Get them by their balls, hearts and minds will follow.”

When India shall proudly wear the stars of ‘socialist’, ‘secular’, ‘democratic’ and ‘republic’ on one more Independence Day, Kashmir shall pass one more year in total denial of these. While ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ India shall promise its citizens ‘security from cradle to grave’, it shall have ensured ‘its forces forcing overlapping of cradles with graves’ in Kashmir. When the ‘justice’ in India’s preamble shall have embraced social, economic and political justice, it shall have denied all of them to Kashmir; practicing injustice towards a society based on their identity, robbing them of economic opportunities and resources via its ‘East India company’ and decades of denial of all political fair play. When India shall have enshrined ’equality’ for its citizens, of Equality before the Law (Article 14), Kashmir shall celebrate denial of ‘equality’ and the practice of lawlessness as a state policy. Kashmir shall have remembered the milestones of Indian justice at Kunaposhpora, Shopian, Machil, Pathribal, Zakura, Hawal, Gawkadal, Bijebehada, Kupwara, Sopore and the continuity of these justice systems in Uri, Rafiabad, Bandipora.

When mothers in India will have dressed their kids to be a part of the gaiety and celebration of their Independence day, many mothers in Kashmir will be again readying for the same silent protests seeking whereabouts of thousands of their innocent sons, picked up by Indian forces and never to be seen again.

While every fatigues controlled celebration of 15th August shall play the old tapes of ‘integration’, ‘justice’ and ‘resolution’ for Kashmir, Kashmiris shall celebrate the resolute will of a persistent struggle for justice.

When India shall celebrate any absence of violence in Kashmir tagging it as peace, Kashmir shall celebrate the forced silence of its graveyards understanding the silent tempest. When India shall celebrate its complacency in Kashmir, its refusal to learn from six decades of failure; Kashmir shall celebrate its resilience, its ability to spring back into resisting with clamped fists and gathering voices in fortitude. While India shall pat itself into believing that they have got a hold on the pulse of Kashmir, Kashmiris would know India only has got a momentary forceful hold on their collar.

Both India and Kashmir shall celebrate 15th August in Kashmir; India in denial of the facts in Kashmir, in delusions of achievements here, of a fallacy forced by military might; Kashmir in realization of the barricades, of the iron fist, of aimed barrels and of determination in self and towards the pursuit of justice.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling. ~Lucretius